While visiting Dracula's castle in Transylvania, we stumbled on a huge scale and we wondered its use. They revealed to us that its use was to weigh people (!) -mainly women- who believed they were witches!

After searching on the web, we discovered the story of witch-hunting that during the 13th century was highly extended in Europe. Inextricably linked to the Roman Catholic Church, who feared and wanted to eliminate whatever was not linked to the Church, they mainly blamed women, especially widows, who did not have anyone to defend them.

Among the victims were the poor, elderly women who healed with herbs -particularly if their treatment failed. Of course, no one was really safe -rich or poor, man or woman, humble or illustrious.

Those who were considered to be witches or sorcerers were accused for all sorts of calamities. It was said that "they were causing frost and brought plagues of snails and caterpillars to destroy seeds and fruits of the earth," according to the German magazine Damals. If snow destroyed the crops, if a cow did not make milk, if a man was impotent or a woman sterile, they would blame the witches!

But how did they identify witches?

One way was to tie and throw the suspect into "holy" cold water. If they sank, they were considered innocent and saved. If they floated, they were considered witches and they were executed on site or delivered to trial.

Another way was to weigh the suspect because it was believed that witches had little or no weight.